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ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA

St. Augustine for the Holidays: Celebrating America’s Oldest Traditions

Itinerary for Dec 7 — Dec 11, 2012

Description: The Hilton Garden Inn St. Augustine Beach is just a half block from the ocean and only a five minute drive to the downtown St. Augustine Historic District. After your classes and daily trips you may want to enjoy sight-seeing, shopping or just strolling on the beach, You may also want to enjoy our pool and whirlpool; or kick back in a comfortable guest room with microwave, coffee maker and refrigerator. Everything. Right where you need it.

Description: The Hilton Garden Inn St. Augustine Beach is just a half block from the ocean and only a five minute drive to the downtown St. Augustine Historic District. After your classes and daily trips you may want to enjoy sight-seeing, shopping or just strolling on the beach, You may also want to enjoy our pool and whirlpool; or kick back in a comfortable guest room with microwave, coffee maker and refrigerator. Everything. Right where you need it.

Breakfast: In the restaurant. It will be buffet style with the option of ordering anything you don't see at the buffett.

Morning: Dianne Jacoby as Mary Lily Kenan Flagler cordially invites you to celebrate Christmas in the glorious
Gilded Age. In a warm and joyous performance. Mrs. Henry Flagler traces the origins of our beloved
Christmas traditions and Decorations through time from Medieval 12th Night feasts
and Christmas in the American Colonies to the glittering Victorian Christmas Celebrations
of St. Augustine’s Grand Hotels.

Lunch: Enjoy fresh baked breads and spanish foods at the Spanish Bakery which has been featured on the Food Network. The Spanish Bakery is tucked away in an out of the way garden in the middle of St. Augustine Downtown Historic district right off St. George St. It wont be hard to find if you follow the sweet smell of freshly baked bread coming out of the stone hearth oven every half hour or so, not to mention the empanadas, or the spicy sausage wrapped in a flaky golden crust.

Afternoon: After lunch we will visit St. Photios Greek Shrine with a lecture and a tour. The St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, an institution of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, is dedicated to the first colony of Greek people who came to America in 1768. With a magnificent Orthodox Chapel filled with Byzantine style frescoes and special exhibits that tell the story of the First Greek Colony in the New World. This freestanding exhibit contains various artifacts, photographs and historical documents.
Depart and head to the Lightner Museum and enjoy a self guided tour with a special music box presentation. Enjoy wandering through the museum's setting — the former Hotel Alcazar, built in 1887 in the Spanish Renaissance style. Railroad magnate Henry M. Flagler commissioned architects Carrere and Hastings to design the Alcazar and the Ponce de Leon Hotel (across the street). The two young architects later designed the New York Public Library and the U.S. Senate office building. After years of accommodating vacationing wealthy patrons, the elegant resort hotel closed.
Depart Lightner Museum for a Red Train Tour of the city.

Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant.

Evening: Enjoy the hometown boat parade and then enjoy a holiday open house inside the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The Castillo de San Marcos, a monument not only of stone and mortar but of human determination and endurance, the Castillo de San Marcos symbolizes the clash between cultures which ultimately resulted in our uniquely unified nation. Still resonant with the struggles of an earlier time, these original walls provide tangible evidence of America’s grim but remarkable history.
This event will feature military arts demonstrations and the public interpretation of univorms, weapons, and equipment used at the Castillo during its long service as the Castillo de San Marcos, Fort St. Marks, and Fort Marion from 1672 to 1945.

Description: The Hilton Garden Inn St. Augustine Beach is just a half block from the ocean and only a five minute drive to the downtown St. Augustine Historic District. After your classes and daily trips you may want to enjoy sight-seeing, shopping or just strolling on the beach, You may also want to enjoy our pool and whirlpool; or kick back in a comfortable guest room with microwave, coffee maker and refrigerator. Everything. Right where you need it.

Breakfast: In the restaurant. It will be buffet style with the option of ordering anything you don't see at the buffett.

Morning: Depart the hotel for downtown St. Augustine. Docent tour of Historical Pena Peck House. The Pena-Peck House was constructed circa 1750 by order of the King of Spain to be the residence of his royal Treasurer, Juan Esteban de Pena.
Built of native coquina stone, it is one of the finest surviving First Spanish Period home in the city. Today the loggia and the first floor remain little changed.
During the British Period (1763-1784) the home was leased to the aristocratic Dr. John Moultrie of Charleston, South Carolina, as his town house. Moultrie, who became Lt. Governor of Florida, owned vast plantations south of St. Augustine in an area that still bears his name.

Lunch: Lunch out to enjoy local fare.

Afternoon: Tour of Flagler College
Advent Lessons and Music in Trinity Episcopal Church

Dinner: Dinner

Evening: Red Train tour of the Nights of Lights through the city of St. Augustine. St. Augustine glows with holiday magic - from the ground to the rooftops. One by one, tiny white lights make the oldest city twinkle in the night.

Description: The Hilton Garden Inn St. Augustine Beach is just a half block from the ocean and only a five minute drive to the downtown St. Augustine Historic District. After your classes and daily trips you may want to enjoy sight-seeing, shopping or just strolling on the beach, You may also want to enjoy our pool and whirlpool; or kick back in a comfortable guest room with microwave, coffee maker and refrigerator. Everything. Right where you need it.

Breakfast: In the restaurant. It will be buffet style with the option of ordering anything you don't see at the buffett.

Morning: Start the day off with the "Three Mrs. Flaglers" and then depart on the Red Train for the Hotel Casa Monica. In the heart of St. Augustine, Florida—the nation’s oldest city—the Casa Monica Hotel is a majestic 1888 landmark. Restored in 1999, the Casa Monica Hotel blends a legendary past with contemporary pleasures. Step inside this historic St. Augustine hotel and enter the grand lobby, rich in décor of tapestries and chandeliers.

Lunch: Lunch at the Casa Monica Hotel (95 Cordova) in a private room.

Afternoon: Free time. You may stay downtown and enjoy the city or return to the hotel and relax.

Dinner: Dinner

Evening: Medieval Mummers: Christmas in teh 18th century. Full length dramatic performance by the St. George Players.

Breakfast: In the restaurant. It will be buffet style with the option of ordering anything you don't see at the buffett.

Morning: Visit the Villa Zorayda Castle. Closed for the past eight years the Villa Zorayda Museum has undergone an extensive renovation and is once again open to the public as a museum. On the National Register of Historic Places it was built in 1883 as the winter residence of Franklin Smith utilizing his method of construction of poured concrete and crushed coquina shell. It is built 1/10th the scale of a section of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. This building set a precedence for St. Augustine and began the Moorish Spanish revival of architecture that is seen throughout the city today. In 1904 it became the Zorayda Club. On display for the first time ever is the custom made bone china made exclusively for the Zorayda Club. In 1913 it was purchased by Abraham S. Mussallem, an authority on Oriental rugs, fine arts and Egyptian artifacts. In 1922 it became one of the most fashionable places for casino gambling. In the mid 1930's it was opened as a museum featuring the priceless antique collections of both Franklin Smith and A.S. Mussallem which are still on display today. The magnificent architecture as well as descriptions of the many exquisite pieces you will see. On display is the "Sacred Cat Rug" over 2400 years old and made from the hairs of ancient cats that roamed the Nile River. Taken from a pyramid in Egypt it is said to possess a curse for anyone that walks on it! Washington Irving wrote of the original Alhambra in Spain in his famous "Tales of the Alhambra".

Important information about your itinerary: Please know that while we do everything we can to finalize all aspects of our programs well in advance, there are logistics that occasionally must be altered. Our website will reflect the most recent information, and we are committed to providing you with final program details no later than eight weeks prior to the start of programs outside the U.S. and three weeks prior to the start of programs within the U.S. If you ever have questions about your program, please don't hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

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*Please note that due to the nature of some programs, the remote location or government regulations, listening devices may not be available. If you’d like to know for sure if your program will offer listening devices, just call and ask an Advisor!